Christianity vs Naturalism: Key Writings

This is a numbered list (with the most important posts at the top) of what I consider to be some of my key pieces of writing in comparing and considering the relative merits of Christianity and Atheism as worldviews. Reading these posts is the best way to gain an understanding of where my current thoughts are on these matters. Note that I plan to update this list periodically as my views change and/or as I write additional posts.

1. The Resurrection of Jesus: Explaining the Historical Facts Debate Notes
2. Five Major Problems with William Lane Craig’s Kalam Cosmological Argument
3. The Question of Christianity: A Personal Manifesto
4. A Theory of Reductive Naturalism: The Metaphysical Foundations of Non-belief
5. How can Christians be so Certain?: Why Subjective Evidence isn’t Evidence
6. Seeking God versus Seeking Truth
7. How to get an Ought from an Is
8. Are there Moral Facts or Duties without God?

Complete List of Posts by Topic

The following list contains all posts that I have published on this blog, arranged by topic. Note that each post is contained in exactly one category. Also note that the numbered list of ‘key writings’ above is stand-alone – all the posts contained therein are also listed below.

About the Blog

• Massive Content Update (2018)
• Updates and the Road Ahead (2017)

Faith, Religion, and Atheism

• A Theory of Reductive Naturalism: The Metaphysical Foundations of Non-belief
• A Naturalistic Worldview: Talk Notes
• Atheism, Agnosticism, and the Burden of Proof
• Everyone is Right – Why Debating Religion is a Fool’s Game
• Seeking God versus Seeking Truth
• Faith and Reason: A Place for Both
• The Failures of New Atheism

Christianity and Apologetics

• Five Major Problems with William Lane Craig’s Kalam Cosmological Argument
• Why I am still not a Christian: My Unanswered Objections
• Weighing up the Arguments For and Against Christianity
• Why Am I still not a Christian?: A Letter to my Christian Friends
• The Question of Christianity: A Personal Manifesto
• The Probability that God Exists is 10%
• The Wisdom of Christianity and the Foolishness of Atheism: What Atheists Consistently get Wrong
• What Christians Disagree About
• How can Christians be so Certain?: Why Subjective Evidence isn’t Evidence
• A Case for Christianity – A Critique
• Should I Worship an Evil God?
• The Myth of Christian Humility
• The Myth of Christian Humility: A Commentary
• Christian Evangelism – Ministry to the Gullible?
• What Lennox Got Wrong: A Refutation of his Key Arguments
• Reflections on ‘Why I am not an Atheist’

Mormonism

• Mormon Tithing: steal from the Poor and give to the Rich
• Why I Left Mormonism and Became an Atheist

The Bible and the Resurrection

• The Resurrection of Jesus: Explaining the Historical Facts Debate Notes
• The Resurrection Appearances: A Naturalistic Explanation? Executive Summary
• Explaining the Resurrection Appearances of Jesus
• Can a Scientist believe the Resurrection’ by John Lennox: A Critique
• If Jesus was Raised, Could the Bible be False?
• Review of John Dickson’s ‘A Doubter’s Guide to the Bible’

Morality and Metaethics

• A Case for Ethical Naturalism
• How to get an Ought from an Is
• The Problem of Evil: Still A Strong Argument for Atheism
• Are there Moral Facts or Duties without God?
• Justifying Morality Without God
• A Meaning to Life without God?
• ‘The Absurdity of Life without God’ – William Lane Craig’s Non-Argument

Effective Altruism

• The Fermi Paradox has not been dissolved
• A Critical Review of ‘The Precipice’: A Reassessment of the Risks of AI and Pandemics
• Effective Altruism is an Ideology, not (just) a Question
• A Critique of Superintelligence
• The Ethical Imperative of Effective Altruism
• Responding to a Marxist Critique of Effective Altruism
• Refuting Criticisms of Utilitarianism and Effective Altruism
• The Case Against Effective Altruism
• Happiness and the Good Life

History

• Lessons from the Fall of Rome
• 70 Years On: Why D-Day still Matters
• Reflections on the 70th Anniversary of VE Day: The Price of Victory
• Reflections on the Fall of the Berlin Wall
• The Price of a Mile: Reflections on the Folly of the Great War
• Anzac Day: Misconceptions and the Real Meaning of Commemoration
• Islamic Contributions to Scholarship

Epistemology

• Levels of Scepticism: How Even Rational People have Sceptical Blind Spots
• A Critique of Crude Positivism: Why the Epistemology of Dawkins and Hawking Fails
• Why Arguments are (almost) Never Convincing: A Dynamical Systems Approach to Belief Change
• The Problem of Peer Disagreement
• The Limits of Knowledge: An Outline of Applied Epistemology
• Is Conciliationism Self-defeating?
• On Evidence and Truth: Why Reason is our only Hope
• When NOT to Update Your Beliefs
• Some Thoughts on Science

Economics and Politics

• Why Income Inequality Doesn’t Matter
• Why Climate Change won’t be Quite as Disastrous as you Thought
• The Concept of ‘Freedom of Speech’
• A Vision for a Secular Australia